


Please Have Mercy On My Toes

by i_just_missed_writing



Series: Tumblr and AO3 Prompts [6]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Dancing, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:14:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23197672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_just_missed_writing/pseuds/i_just_missed_writing
Summary: Based on Anon's prompt on Tumblr:Could I have a pre-keyshipping story where Yuma teaches Astral how to slow dance (maybe they’re watching a movie and Astral sees the leads slow dancing so he asks Yuma about it). After the initial awkwardness and Yuma stepping on Astral multiple times it just ends with them confessing their feelings for each other? Thank you!! ^_^
Relationships: Astral/Tsukumo Yuuma
Series: Tumblr and AO3 Prompts [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1639108
Comments: 6
Kudos: 42





	Please Have Mercy On My Toes

He dreamed about Astral every night. The glow of his skin, the colors of his eyes, his calming voice - he missed him every second he wasn't there. And since his return to Astral World, that was way too often. It was a constant ache sitting in Yuma's chest. It felt so wrong to be apart and so right to reunite. But Astral had his duties to his people and Yuma had his life back here on earth. Fate was cruel like that sometimes.

It was the middle of the night and Yuma lay curled up in his hammock, his eyes squeezed shut and his heart heavy. The stars and moon always filled him with longing.

"Yuma."

He could almost hear Astral's voice like it was there. He wished it were.

"Yuma, wake up."

There were still so many things left unsaid between them.

"Yuma, come on, wake up. I need your help with something."

Yuma's eyes flew open and blinked repeatedly at the soft glow illuminating the night. "Astral." Even to him, his voice sounded like a prayer.

"Hey." The smile on Astral's face was small but the sparkling in his eyes was more than enough to make Yuma's heart beat faster.

"Astral!" Yuma shut up and nearly fell off the hammock as he threw himself at Astral who caught him with a breathless sound. "You're back!"

"I am." Astral's voice trembled slightly.

Yuma was already past that point and letting the tears run freely. "I missed you so much." He tightened his arms around Astral's shoulders.

"I missed you, too," Astral whispered into his ear before he buried his face in the bunched up fabric on Yuma's shoulder.

Minutes passed as they held onto each other in the darkness of the attic. The only sounds they could hear were the low buzzing of the city and each other's breathing. Yuma hadn't felt so at peace in months. If his one year younger self, the one who'd just met Astral, could see him like this... The thought had him chuckling.

Astral pulled back with a smile on his face. "What is it?"

"Just thinking about us when we first met."

Astral's laughter washed across Yuma's mind and settled in his heart. "Oh yes... we were different back then, weren't we?"

"Yes, you were very annoying," Yuma teased.

" _I_ was annoying?" Astral's disbelief reflected on his face.

"Yup." Yuma nodded with mock seriousness. "So annoying. Always asking questions and looking down on me and wanting to follow me to the bathroom of all places."

"I was curious and you were gambling with my life!"

Yuma felt the grin tugging at his mouth as he watched Astral's brow furrow in annoyance. He was pretty sure there was a sappy expression on his face right now but he didn't care. The missing part of his soul was standing right there in front of him - real and warm and responsive.

"Why are you looking at me like that after you just insulted me?"

Yuma slid off the hammock until his feet found solid ground right in front of the spot where Astral was hovering. "Because I missed this. I missed us." He was still smiling and couldn't seem to take his eyes off Astral's face.

Astral's expression softened immediately. "I did, too. Every day since you left Astral World."

Yuma remembered their last mission. More importantly, he remembered all the close calls as they and their friends put their lives on the line for the sake of Astral's home world. "I wish we got to see each other under less dangerous circumstances sometimes."

Astral reached up to brush a hand over Yuma's cheek before he took a step back. "That reminds me: I need your help with something."

Yuma frowned. "What is it? Are you in danger?"

"No, no, nothing like that," Astral was quick to assure. "It's something more... mundane."

Yuma titled his head. "Like what?"

"I need you to teach me how to dance."

"Dance?"

"Yes."

"What for?"

Astral ducked his head. "I've been put in charge of organizing the Solstice Festival and I want it to be special. We don't really dance on Astral World but I've seen people do it on your TV. I think I'd like to share that with my people. If that's okay with you."

Yuma reached out to grab Astral's hand and tugged him closer again, though he still had to tilt his head to re-establish eye contact. "I think that's a really nice idea. Except I... I don't really know how to dance either." He furrowed his brow. "Well, I can do the basic box step Waltz type thingy but that's mostly it."

"Can you teach me that?"

"Oh, um, yeah. Sure."

Astral smiled and floated further back into the empty center of the room. With Yuma's hand in his, he was automatically tugging him along as well. "So what do I do?"

Yuma raised their clasped hands and went to place Astral's free one on his shoulder before putting his own on the curve of Astral's waist. "First, you place your hands like this. The taller one usually puts their hand on the shorter one's waist... I think. But since you're floating, we'll do it like this for now."

"I'm taller even with my feet on the ground."

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am."

"No. I'm taller now."

Astral sighed as his glow dimmed and he lowered himself to the floor. With both of his feet firmly planted on the ground, their eye level seemed to be about equal. "See? I'm still taller."

Yuma narrowed his eyes. "No, you're not." He took his hand out of Astral's and traced an invisible line between the tops of their heads. "Look! I'm taller! Your hair doesn't count!"

"You moved your hand at an angle."

"No, I didn't! Do you want me to get the measuring tape? Because I will!"

"Just be mature and show me how to dance."

Yuma huffed but did as told. "I'm leading so just mirror what my feet are doing... shorty."

Astral's foot landed on Yuma's toes.

"Ow!"

"Oh, I thought we were already moving."

Yuma narrowed his eyes at him.

Astral blinked back at him with an innocent expression.

Yuma shook his head and looked back down at their feet. "So first, my right foot goes back and your left food goes forward." He did as described and watched Astral follow along. "Great! Now my left foot goes left and you're right one goes... right? Wait..." He cocked his head. "No. Yes. Wait. No, whatever. Just... step along."

There was a lot of tripping and wincing involved in 'stepping along' as it turned out and it took them a good while before they'd figured out how to master the basic steps.

"Now we can try going in a circle!" Yuma said eagerly and set his next step diagonally which caused Astral to bump right into him. "No, diagonally now."

Astral looked down at their feet. "How- Oh." He stepped right on Yuma's foot who ended up stumbling and nearly brought them both down.

"I said diagonally!"

"I did step diagonally but your foot was in the way!"

Yuma pulled back a bit and looked up from their feet at Astral in suppressed laughter. "I've never seen you like this before."

The expression on Astral's face could only be described as a pout.

"I..." Yuma shook his head. "Come on, let's try again!"

They figured out the circle version of the steps after a few attempts, at which point Astral seemed to really be enjoying himself. He kept picking up the pace until Yuma could no longer keep up and their dancing turned more into smashing each other's feet and laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. Yuma couldn't remember the last time they'd had this much fun together. He only wished it could be like that every day. But it couldn't. 

_I don't want this moment to end._

"There's one more thing we can try," Yuma said. "Spinning!"

"What?"

Yuma grinned. "I think you'll like this! So-" He took his hand off Astral's waist. "I raise our hands like this over your head. And now you step through the arch of our arms and turn until you're facing me again."

Astral did as instructed but the way he moved didn't exactly look like dancing. Nobody got hurt though so it was still progress in Yuma's book.

"Great! Now let's do that in combination with the circle step thingy we were doing before!"

There was a lot of foot squashing and bumping into each other again at first but they figured it out eventually.

"And now like this!" Yuma let go off Astral's waist once more and stepped back and off to the side until their arms were outstretched between them, their hands still clasped. "It's best if I just show you this one." He pulled his free arm against himself and twirled around until both their connected arms were wrapped around him and he'd stepped all the way up against Astral, back to chest. When he tilted his head to look at Astral, he found their faces impossibly close. "Do- do you think you can follow that?"

Astral stared at him for a moment before he nodded slightly.

Yuma smiled and slowly went to untangle them.

They resumed position and Astral carefully went to retrace Yuma's movements with clumsy determination. Yuma couldn't help but smile at the effort Astral was putting into all of this, and he was still smiling by the time Astral was wrapped up in his arm, back pressed against his front.

"That was great!" he said encouragingly. "Once you can do that quickly as well, you'll be able to impress all your people!"

The smile on Astral's face was warm as he sought out eye-contact. "Thank you, Yuma. For all of this."

Yuma tightened his hold around him. "I'm glad you came to ask me for help. It's been..." He averted his gaze and held his breath for for a moment. "It's been lonely without you."

"But you still have all your friends here." Astral sounded concerned.

"I know. And I love spending time with them but-" Yuma bit his lip. "They're not... you. Being with them feels different."

"Different how?" Astral whispered.

"None of them can fill that space you leave behind every time we part."

Astral leaned more of his weight against him. "Yuma..."

"I know. I'm getting sappy." Yuma rolled his wet eyes. "I still get to see you and I know you're always out there, and yet you still got me talking like this. I bet you're just laughing at me on the inside, you jerk."

Astral chuckled and gently untangled their arms so he could face Yuma again. "I actually thought what you said was very touching but then you had to go and ruin it by accusing me like that."

Yuma pulled back to cross his arms while still firmly avoiding eye contact. He knew his cheeks were filled with heat and Astral could probably tell.

"It hurts me too when you're not there," Astral said after a beat of silence. "I don't really feel... complete when I can't look over to find you right next to me."

Yuma's gaze flickered up to Astral's eyes. "You're the one thing in this world that's most important to me," he mumbled.

A smile tugged at Astral's lips. "You're the one thing that can make me feel alive in this universe."

Yuma felt traitorous tears well up in his eyes again. "Dammit." He flung his arms around Astral's neck and pushed their lips together. 

It was clumsy. And a little too forceful. But Astral still wrapped his arms around him instead of pushing him away in confusion like Yuma had feared he would when he'd felt him move.

Their lips parted when Yuma pulled back just a few seconds later to look into Astral's eyes. "I've never done that before."

"Me neither."

"It felt a little weird."

Astral chuckled. "For me too."

Yuma grinned. "I guess we can just practice together again. But not now. I need to sleep." He glanced over at his hammock before focusing back on Astral. "Can you stay?"

"As long as you want."

"So forev-"

"Not that long," Astral interrupted in a teasing tone. "But I'll figure something out. How does a permanent portal to Astral World sound?"

Yuma's eyes widened. "Really?"

"I've been working on convincing my people. And I could use your help with teaching them how to dance at the festival."

Yuma smiled and shot forward for another quick kiss. "I love you, Astral."

"And I love you and that smile of yours."

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to send me art and drabble prompts over here (no smut - please and thank you): https://time-to-w-w-w-write.tumblr.com
> 
> Or you can leave your prompts in a comment down below!


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